1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to flat panel displays for conveying flight and aircraft status information and data to aircraft pilots. More particularly, the present invention is directed to a flat panel display system and method for displaying flight and aircraft status information to an aircraft flight crew in a manner that facilitates the directing of viewer attention toward that data currently most important for operation of the aircraft and existing environmental and aircraft conditions.
2. Description of Related Art
Traditionally, a variety of aircraft status, control, flight, navigation and other data has been presented to the pilots and flight crews of large commercial airliners on a multiplicity of single-function instruments and gauges and the like. Many of these instruments and gauges have been mechanically, hydraulically and/or electromechanically operated and are variously located about the flight deck of an aircraft. Thus, by way of illustrative example, individual instruments have been provided to respectively display primary aircraft control data such as altitude, vertical speed, heading and attitude, while other individual instruments and gauges have respectively displayed engine-related parameters and data such as engine rpm's, hydraulic pressure, engine temperature, fuel flow and remaining quantity, and vacuum pressure—information that, while also essential to the operation of the aircraft, is of secondary importance in its moment-to-moment control and therefore normally does not require constant in-flight monitoring by a pilot. These many and various instruments and gauges have accordingly been disposed at a variety of locations within and about the aircraft flight deck so that the pilots have immediate access to the primary control data which is positioned directly before them, whereas the secondary and less critical indicators are situated in locations still readily accessible to the pilots but not necessarily directly before them so that when the pilots must consult those secondary indicators their known locations can be readily viewed.
In more modern commercial airliners flat panel displays (FPDs) are increasingly being employed to digitally display much of the data that has previously been presented by mechanical, hydraulic and electromechanical instruments and the like. Moreover, as improving FPD technology has permitted the economic manufacture and use of ever-larger and more capable FPDs, these flat screens are increasingly being employed to concurrently display, on a single relatively large FPD in an aircraft, numerous types of data that have previously been presented on a multiplicity of separate, single-function gauges. This has permitted more and more data to be placed directly in front of aircraft pilots, thereby making all such data concurrently available for immediate viewing by the flight crew without having to displace one's gaze away from the primary flight instruments on which the pilots must concentrate in controlling an in-flight aircraft. In this manner, pilot scanning of the numerous data indications presented for use in operating and controlling the aircraft is simplified, and pilot workload and fatigue are correspondingly reduced.
Yet despite the apparent advances in the safe operation and control of an aircraft that should presumably result from such compactions of the pilots' scan and required field of view to, for example, identify data indications of an unusual or unexpected nature or magnitude, a significant disadvantage with these ever-larger FPDs on which a significant amount of varied data is concurrently presented in an aircraft cockpit is the resulting information clutter on the display. The more information that is concurrently presented on a single display, the greater the possibility of momentary confusion or hesitation in locating and identifying and viewing the most significant data in an emergency or perceived emergency situation. Control of an aircraft often requires uninterrupted attention to the indications of the primary flight instruments, whether separately presented on individual single-function gauges or concurrently displayed on a single, multipurpose FPD. When additional information is added to such a multi-function display of primary flight data, the presence of that additional data can momentarily divert a pilot's attention from the information needed to maintain control of the aircraft in an emergency. Such additional information can also confuse or distract the pilot as the multiple types of concurrently displayed information can at a glance appear to run together on a crowded FPD. This may be the case even if precautions are taken such as by employing digitally-simulated bezels or like instrument boundaries on the FPD to segregate the types of data. In emergency situations even the briefest hesitation by a pilot can result in a total loss of control of the aircraft or other potentially catastrophic operating difficulties.